America’s power grids will face a test this Saturday as an annular solar eclipse—a so-called ring of fire—brings big swings to the nation’s solar output.The skies will darken for about three hours as the moon blocks the passage of light toward the earth, taking most solar-power generation in states from…

Stock markets have always leaned in the favour of those with the most resources. While technically the same information is publicly available to all investors, from billion-dollar Wall Street hedge funds to enthusiasts in their basements, the reality isn’t quite as simple. It’s like those scenes from Hollywood where the…

Six months into her second pregnancy, Lauren Porter, a production scheduler at a Virginia shipyard, started struggling with back pain, which was aggravated by her commute and the eight-hour shifts at her desk. Porter had done her job remotely during the pandemic, and asked her manager—with a note from her…

Key News Asia started the week with a thud on light volumes as the US dollar strengthened overnight, and Middle East tensions weighed on risk sentiment. Chatter that the US government will further tighten restrictions on chip exports to China was cited as a factor, though it was a light…

The Internal Revenue Service has been warning that it would step up tax audits. It’s finally happening, beginning with partnerships and certain wealthy individuals. The agency has rolled out its first phase in a new era of enforcement with a bigger budget. It is targeting partnerships with more than $10 million…

Theft sometime pays. It sounds much nicer to call it competition research. Once a year in this column, I take a look at the holdings of a few investment managers I respect. Choosing one stock from each of their holdings, I call the result the Purloined Portfolio. From Scott Black,…

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain announced Friday that the strike against the Detroit Three auto makers wouldn’t be expanded. But that doesn’t mean negotiations are over—not by a long shot.The longer any strike lasts, the larger the problem it becomes for the companies involved. But a long strike will…

With so much uncertainty in the world today, it pays to have a little insurance. And it just so happens that insurance stocks look plenty attractive today. At its most basic level, insurance involves shifting risk from one party to another and charging fees for that service. That’s true whether…

Key Takeaways Microsoft has been cleared by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to complete their acquisition of Activision Blizzard It will allow them to finalize the $69 billion transaction, and will see them take ownership of franchises such as Call of Duty and Warcraft As part of the concessions…

It now pays to be an amateur.The NCAA started allowing college athletes to make money from their name, image and likeness in 2021, after decades of student-athletes saying it wasn’t fair that they didn’t receive any money while the games they played in generated millions of dollars — especially football…